new 01/04/2004
Like all the others said, get the tool...even if it's the cheap universal cube thing from Autozone or wherever. When I got my GenIII about 5 years ago, resources such as this list were scarce, so when I tried to do my rear brakes, I too tried the C-clamp method. After buying bigger and bigger clamps, bending them and cussing profusely, I finally figured out the the pistons had to be turned in. The cube part barely works, but did allow me to finish the job in a short period of time. Overall, what should've been a 2 hour job turned into a whole weekend!
Last month, when it was time for me to do the rears again, I dusted off the old cube and did the whole job in about 1 hour! That part still sucks, and takes some finagling, but short of getting the high-dollar official Ford part, was well worth the $10 I spent 5 years ago!
George
Get the tool! This is a picture of the one I use. With the right tool the job takes minutes, with wrong one it will take hours, with bloody
knuckles and lots of choice words.
If there is any one single tool that has come to be a godsend when working on this car it has to be my 12mm GearWrench (if you've removed the surge tank even you know what I mean)... Well I really needed a full set of metric ratchet wrenches, so I put the bug in the wife's ear. She passed with flying colors... Not only did I get what I wanted but it is one of the neatest tool kits for the money I have ever seen.
Pictured is a socket on the adapter that get put inside one of the ratcheting ends of one of the wrenches. Since these are non-reversible wrenches now I won't have to worry about getting the direction bumped or reversed when working in close quarters (like that damn alternator or surge tank removal) also the socket is latched on so it can't fall of either.
This kit is available at ACE hardware in SAE or metric, here is the link to the metric set. These are the actual GearWrench Named tools, with "Ace Professional" on the other side of the wrench. If you feel interested, I advise you to stop in and check it out.
http://tinyurl.com/2ln3v
But if you do a search on E-Bay for "Ace Gearwrench" you will have some luck. There only is one or two listed now so don't bid each other out of control if there is an interest. Before Christmas there was another seller that was selling several of these, but I don't know when the stopped or ran out. The case that it comes in works well, but needs a thin layer of foam on the top to help keep things in place and quite it down which did the trick very well. This will be the only tool kit coming to the track with me in the future as it has driver bits (Phillips, Straight, Allen and Torx) and all the socket and wrench sizes you would need, the only additional things coming along will be the portable Air compressor, a set of pliers, and maybe a hammer in case I get pissed at something.
Scott if you own SHO's you gotta have the tools Krietemeyer
The ratchet adapters appear to be the same that are in my set, once you put
the wrench on it and latch the socket on it can't come apart without
pressing the release button... The ACE set also has the dual position
extension, which is fairly cool, but I have my own set of dedicated wobbles
so I will probably stick with those. Wobbles are a godsend too...
Scott
Both the bent and the straight have their pros and cons. When working in
tight spaces I certainly do not like the flip lever as it gets bumped too
often while using the wrench, the bend is good sometimes and a hindrance
on others. The ultimate solution is the flex heads, but then they are
floppy and you have to get them on the fastener to begin with. You just can't win....